Sands On Lido Beach

Don’t waste your time or your money. The food was no better than going to a fast food restaurant. The service sucked and the overall selections were poor. Was there this past weekend, even the D J was terrible. As far as ambiance… Sandy should have took this place out to sea.

I am Completely blown away by these HORRID reviews. I saw a couple bad ones but still took a chance on this place after sitting down with Jeff (at the time ²⁄₁₄ he was in charge of booking).
I was pretty nervous but Jennifer held my hand the whole way.
My wedding 9÷5÷14 was absolutely wonderful and i am so thankful that i looked past the reviews and booked. EVERYONE in attendance was blown away with every aspect of the wedding. The outdoor ceremony, cocktail hour, food, drinks, presentation everything was just what i hoped for and dreamed of.
People rarely come back and leave good reviews just the bad ones. I just hope that i can encourage someone to give the place a try.
Thank you for a beautiful wedding!

Let me preface this review by saying that I have never even set foot in this venue. This review is based solely on the incompetence of the salespeople/​receptionists and their poor customer service skills.
I have been considering this venue for my wedding despite the horrid reviews because I had heard it was actually a nice place for the price from a few family members and people whose opinion I trust. I guess I’ll never find out.
I tried calling to set up an appt to view the space a few times in one day. Never answered the phone MULTIPLE different times throughout the day and voicemail box full. Okay, no big deal. I sent an online inquiry in hopes of getting a quicker response. About 20 minutes after my last attempt at a phone call, I received a call back from a very curt young girl saying, «This is The Sands at Lido Beach, did someone call here?» … What?
I told the girl I was looking to make an appointment for my fiancée and I to come and see their facility. She replied ‚“Ok, for what?” Ummmmm… our wedding?
She proceeded to go through the motions asking me all of the standard questions … how many guests are we expecting, what time of year, would we be having the ceremony there, etc. Then she said «OK, I’ll have a banquet manager get back to you.» I asked her what for, and why, since she already had all of my info and I just wanted to secure an appt time seeing that we have very tight schedules and only a small window each week available for us BOTH to see the venue. I asked her why couldn’t she give me an appointment. She replied, «The banquet managers do that.» I told her in response that I very specifically need a Monday appointment. She told me that would be absolutely fine and to wait to hear back via email or phone call from the manager with an exact appointment time.
Flash forward two days, I get a completely unrelated automated email from the website inquiry I had sent in. I replied to it and explained my situation to Nicole, and told her I was awaiting a tentative appointment time on a Monday from the «Banquet Manager.» Nicole replied and told me that no one is in fact at the venue on Mondays. I quickly wrote back and told her I was told that Monday would be fine. She responded and chose to ignore the fact that I was given the wrong information, no apology, and asked if I would be available Saturday night. I told her the earliest we can make it Saturday night would be 7:30 pm. It took her about another two days to respond and she told me someone would be available to see us Saturday at 6:30. How does that help me!!! I wrote a final email to her explaining how unfortunate it is because Monday is really the only convenient time for my fiancée and I. I also gave her two other days we would be available. She never wrote back.
Now I’m sitting here calling The Sands to try to reach someone, no answer multiple times, and voicemail still full.
Why on Earth would I hold my wedding reception here when the entire staff is unreachable for a week straight BEFORE I EVEN SEE THE VENUE?
Sands, if you don’t want my business, I will gladly take it elsewhere. Wedding planning is stressful enough. I would never entrust our special day to you when you can’t even get an appointment time straight or respond back to potential clients in a timely manner. How hard is that? Do you know how frustrating it is when you can’t even leave a voicemail for a week straight? I suggest you hire some customer service rep PROFESSIONALS who actually care. The multiple other venues I have already seen on Long Island made setting up a time to view their space a BREEZE. I guess you get what you pay for.

Went to a wedding there. Had heard this was an elegant venue so expected good food and good service. It was actually quite a disappointment.
There was an outdoor ceremony under a gazebo. As soon as the ceremony started the microphone stopped working and there was nobody there to attempt to fix it so only people in the first few rows heard anything.
During the cocktail hour, each buffet table had only one server, so there were huge lines to get any food. The quality of the food left much to be desired. Nobody came to remove empty dishes from the table so we got up and moved them ourselves.
The main dinner was mediocre as well. The appetizer, mozzarella and tomato was buried in too much balsamic vinegar making it inedible.
The choices for entrée were skirt steak, which was served in an overdose of gravy, salmon, which was overcooked and served in a sweet sauce, or chicken, which was the least offensive of the choices.
Wedding cake was served 40 minutes after the coffee was served and was low quality.
It was impossible to find a waiter or waitress if you wanted or needed anything. All in all this was a very joyful affair due to the people there but the Sands doesn’t even invest in good signage so that it is easily found by people who are not familiar with it.
I would surely not recommend this place to anyone.

How could anyone possibly book here? We made an appointment and arrived 5 minutes early — it was nearly an hour drive for us. The person who came out to greet us was inappropriate at best — certainly not professional. She ever asked us to have a seat — we stood in the lobby and she pointed and said that’s the room. It was set for a lecture or something not a party. We were inquiring about my niece’s Sweet Sixteen. She told us we would get appetizers like quesadillas and pigs in a blanket and some hot dishes. When we asked for a menu she said her printer was broken. When I asked if she could e-​mail the menu to me she huffed and said I guess so — nearly a week later I am still waiting. She never walked us around — we walked ourselves and she caught up with us. The place is small — a tour would have taken two minutes. Everything is new and very neutral but already poorly maintained — finger prints everywhere and a not so clean restroom. She was walking us to the door when we asked for the price — she said oh yeah the price. She never wrote anything down — told us the price — which was ridiculous for what was being offered. The price was the same for January and June, Thursday pm or Saturday pm. No wonder this place has no business. They certainly don’t make you feel welcome or interested in your event. This unpleasant experience took less than 10 minutes. The only explanations I can think of is that this sales person is a relative of the owner and that is how she keeps her job or that the owner just doesn’t care if he has business or not.
Our next appointment was at Cresthollow — the Sands staff should go there and take notes as to how things should be done. We are still looking at places but Sands is absolutely NOT a contender. If this is how they treat you before they have your money I cannot imagine how they treat you once they do. Don’t waste your time!

Venue is deco modern and is pleasant enough. Staff for outside wedding seems a little confused on how to set things up and still be in the background. Outside champagne service was next to nonexistent and 2 little trays of canapes at the door after the ceremony was a joke. The cocktail hour started with the wait staff not clearing the empty dishes away the 1^st half hour, the 2^nd half hour the wait staff was clearing dishes away at a good pace, but most of the food trays were left empty, and the passing of hot canapes was again almost nonexistent. The wait staff for the sit down dinner was good, and the dinner entrees were excellent, chicken was the best I ever ate at a wedding. Steak and salmon also very good. However what The Sands needs is a good hands on coordinator to make sure that the above complaints are dealt with, also like candles on the tables dripping onto table cloths and the glass holders breaking, the timing of the cake cutting and desert offerings coordinate with the serving of coffee and tea. Coffee & tea was served forty five minutes before the cake or deserts appeared, all in all it would be OK for a prom or sweet sixteen party, but for weddings or other adult functions it needs a little more fine tuning.

This place is utterly disgusting. They do not know how to treat clients, throw a party/​wedding or even be ethical for that matter. They are just con artists who will try to extort more money from u in the end. HUGE mistake having anything here. Please research what other businesses the owner of this place owns so u know what other places to stay away from. Deceitful, rude, liars, deplorable. I repeat the other review. DO NOT HAVE YOUR WEDDING HERE!!!
Even one star is too much